The present invention relates generally to crop harvesting machines, commonly referred to as disc mower-conditioners and, more particularly, to a drive mechanism for providing rotational power to opposing ends of a disc cutterbar.
Typically, disc cutterbars having a plurality of rotatably mounted disc cutters are operably driven from one end of the cutterbar with the power being transferred via a drive train from disc cutter to disc cutter. Splitting the drive to opposing ends of the cutterbar can be accomplished by utilizing the rotating conditioning mechanism as a means for transferring rotational power from one transverse side of the machine to the other. Such devices would require additional gearboxes to deliver the rotational power to the opposing end of the disc cutterbar. Such devices would be inherently expensive because of the additional gearboxes required. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a drive mechanism for a disc mower-conditioner in which the rotational power could be delivered to opposing ends of the disc cutterbar in an economical and efficient manner.